For an elevator, for example, if a person accompanied by a pet such as a dog on a leash enters an elevator car while the pet is still on a landing floor, a car door and a landing door may close with the leash stretched between the inside of the elevator car and the landing floor, and the elevator car may ascend or descend. Thus, a hand of the person is strongly pulled by the leash on the pet, and in some cases, a wrist or the like may severely be injured.
To a car door of an elevator, a safety shoe frame is mounted, which protrudes from an end surface of the car door in a closing direction and moves relative to the car door. When the safety shoe frame bumps into a person or a foreign matter during closing of the car door and a force is applied to the safety shoe frame, closing operations of the car door and a landing door are inverted to opening operations.
Also, a light beam crossing an entrance of an elevator car is generated, and closing operations of a car door and a landing door are inverted to opening operations when the light beam is blocked by a person or a foreign matter. Various methods are proposed as foreign matter detection methods using a light beam (for example, see Patent Literatures 1 and 2).